The present invention relates broadly to a high speed switch, and in particular to a positive space-charge closing switch apparatus.
An electric switch is a device that makes, breaks, or changes the course of an electric circuit. Basically, an electric switch consists of two or more contacts mounted on an insulating structure and arranged so that they can be moved into and out of contact with each other by a suitable operating mechanism.
The term switch is usually used to denote only those devices intended to function when the circuit is energized or deenergized under normal manual operating conditions; as contrasted with circuit breakers, which have as one of their primary functions the interruption of short-circuit currents. Although there are hundreds of types of electric switches, their application can be broadly classified into two major categories, power and signal.
A switching means is a constituent electric circuit element of switching or digital data-processing systems. Well-known examples of such systems are digital computers, dial telephone systems, automatic accounting and inventory systems. In these and other switching systems the component circuit units receive, store, and manipulate information in coded (digital) form to accomplish the specified objectives of the system.
Physically, switching circuits consist of conducting paths interconnecting discrete-valued electrical devices. The most generally used switching circuit devices are two-valued or binary, such as switches and relays in which manual or electro-magnetic actuation opens and closes electric contacts, vacuum and gas filled electronic tubes, semi-conductor rectifiers and transistors, which do or do not conduct current; and magnetic structures which can be saturated in either one or two directions.
The electrical conditions controlling these switching circuit devices are also generally two-valued binary, such as open versus closed path, full voltage versus no voltage, large current versus small current, and high resistance versus low resistance. Such two-valued electrical conditions, as applied to the input of a switching circuit represent either (1) a combination of events or situations which exist or do not exist; (2) a sequence of events or situations which occur in a certain order; or (3) both combinations and sequences of events or situations. The switching circuit responds to such inputs by delivering at its output, also in two-valued terms, new information which is functionally related to the input information.
Eximer lasers require electric power loading levels of thousands of megawatts peak in a time scale of tens of nanoseconds. Specially designed spark gaps can do this but have very limited life due to electrode erosion and also the efficiency of spark gaps in this type of service run only about 50% efficient. The present invention solves the problems of a short operating life and low efficiency which the prior art switching devices have.